Geography

A narrow strait splits Asian and Australian wildlife

Crossing the Lombok Strait between Bali and Lombok, naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace noticed the animals change abruptly: tigers, monkeys and woodpeckers to the west, cockatoos and marsupial relatives to the east. The deep-water channel stayed open even during ice-age sea-level drops that connected other nearby islands by land bridge, so species from each side never mixed. It's now called the Wallace Line in his honour.

Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago — 1869
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